911 Supervisor Didn't Send Home Sick Worker Who Later Died: HR

PHOENIX, AZ — Phoenix 911 operator Pamela Cooper’s supervisor violated city policy by not sending her home on Feb. 26 when she told him she felt sick, according to an investigation by Phoenix’s Human Resources Department.

“I might die,” she responded to her supervisor after being told she needed to tack five hours onto her 10-hour shift in the first week she returned to work from sick leave for COVID-19, the investigative report found. One week later, Cooper was dead.

Her supervisor told investigators he believed her message to be sarcastic, even though Cooper had just returned from five weeks of sick leave, the report said. The report recommended corrective action for the supervisor who was not identified. The city chose not to disclose the names of any employees in the report to avoid a chilling effect on cooperation with future investigations, said the city's Director of Communications, Dan Wilson. The supervisor received what the city calls a "supervisory counseling memo," and is still employed by the city, Wilson said.

"I believe the investigation left a lot to be desired," said Frank Piccioli, president of Phoenix's EMS workers union. "Mandated overtime is still a daily part of most police communicators lives. Pushing them past the limit of health and safety seems to be norm right now."

Cooper told her supervisor that if she had to work overtime, she would be going home in an ambulance, the report said.

She was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 27 after her lungs stopped working, the Phoenix New Times reported. She died March 5 after a week on life support.

When the supervisor suggested on Feb. 26 that Cooper help herself to free food provided for those working mandatory overtime, Cooper replied that she could barely walk or breathe after returning from sick leave and that she would stay sitting for the remainder of her shift, according to the report.

The report found that she would not have been disciplined if she had refused to work the extra hours and that she didn’t ask to use a “free pass” to get out of the extra time.

But it’s clear that some of her colleagues believed that they would be disciplined for refusing to work additional hours. Half of the communications employees interviewed believed they would be written up if they refused "mandatory holdover," or unscheduled overtime, because of staffing issues, the human resources investigation found.

Three communications operators who worked with Cooper on Feb. 26 also said they heard her say she was having a hard time breathing and was feeling worn down and exhausted, the report said.

The city’s 911 communications center has been understaffed for years, with an ongoing shortage of around 40 employees, according to the report.

While Piccioli said he was glad that the city took some action in response to what happened to Cooper, he added that, "it is not enough."

Piccioli wants to know how the city will ensure that something like this doesn't happen again.

Prior to the incident, the department was working on scheduling changes that would reduce the need for mandatory overtime, the report said. That included reducing overtime blocks to two hours instead of four or five.

The report recommended development of a communications system to help supervisors share information about overtime policies and returning to work after an illness.